1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card connector and more particularly to a card connector with an ejection damper.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, electronic equipment, such as a personal computers, portable or mobile telephones, PDAs (personal digital assistant), digital cameras, video cameras, music players, game machines, and car navigation systems, are equipped with card connectors adapted for use with various types of memory cards such as a SIM (subscriber identity module) card, an MMC® (multi media card), an SD® (secure digital) card, a mini SD® card, an xD picture card® (xD-Picture card), a memory stick®, a memory stick Duo®, a smart media®, a T-Flash (Trans-Flash) memory card, a micro SD® card, and the like.
Recent card connectors generally have, for ease of handling, a “push-push” structure in which a user handles a memory card so as to push it in order to both insert and discharge the card from a connector. However, with a card connector having the push-push structure, in discharging a card, the card is urged to slide by the repulsive force of a spring. This increases the travel speed of the card or a slide member holding the card, so that the card might dash or pop out or the slide member might collide with a stopper member resulting in mechanical shock. For this reason, there has been proposed such a technique that a speed reducer is used for slowing the travel speed of a card or a slide member down in discharging the card (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-31307).
FIG. 7 is a schematic view illustrating a conventional card connector which includes a socket body 301 of a card connector, and a memory card (not shown) is inserted in direction “A.” The card connector has a slide cover 302 slidably mounted on the socket body 301, and an eject unit (not shown) for discharging a memory card inserted between the socket body 301 and the slide cover 302. The eject unit discharges a memory card by urging the slide cover 302 and the memory card to slide downwardly, as viewed in FIG. 7, by the repulsive force of a spring such as a torsion coil spring. The back of the socket body 301 is provided with a substrate 303 including for example electric terminals making contact with pads of the memory card, and a cable 304 connected to the substrate 303.
A speed reducer 305 is disposed on one side of the socket body 301. The speed reducer 305 has an oil damper 307 attached to a receptacle container 309 that houses therein the card connector, a gear 308 on which rotational resistance is exerted by the oil damper 307, and a rack 306 that is formed on one side surface of the slide cover 302 to be engaged with the gear 308.
With this construction, the speed reducer 305 can slow the travel speed of the slide cover 302 when a card is discharged from the card connector. This eliminates the possibility that the card is ejected too quickly, or that the slide cover 302 collides with a stopper member (not shown) thereby subjecting the card to mechanical shock.
The conventional card connector needs to have attached thereto, speed reducer 305 provided with oil damper 307, gear 308, and rack 306 rendering the structure somewhat complicated and increasing the cost. Moreover, disposition of the speed reducer 305 on the side of the socket body 301 increases the width of the card connector, thus making it difficult to miniaturize the card connector.